Organized Crime in your city?

[crue cab]

I live in Melbourne Florida. Otherwise known as Melboring. I doubt they could organize a parade.

[monkeywrenching]

Originally Posted by Lowkeykennyg

Hey there,

This might be the wrong place for this, but I'm really just curious about what cities in America still have an organized crime influence(Beyond street gangs). I thought it would be cool for people who may know more about a certain area to explain what the situation is like there. Personally, I currently like in Columbus, Ohio, and we don't have much history of organized crime. That being said, Cleveland and Youngstown have always been ripe with crime.
Tell us about your city!

I don't think I would know. the closest city if 90 miles away. the town I live close to does seem to have high prices at the general store. population 391.

[West of Encino]

Los Angeles here. There was an organized crime element that among some street gangs during the crack epidemic. Nowadays, there are secret drug cartels and mafias that uses these gangs as their soldiers and distributors.

[2nd trick op]

Northeastern Pennsylvania, where I live, has a reputation for a strong Mafia presence, but very little violence -- at least not locally. The link below represents the first published in-depth account of local organized crime of which I'm aware:

http://citizensvoice.com/news/the-ri...ower-1.1175897

Russell Bufalino (1903-1994) headed what became known as the "Pittston family" (Pittston is a modest-sized, closely-knit, predominately white-ethnic community halfway between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, with a reputation for modest education and little "social conscience") for many years. Bufalino succeeded Joseph Barbera (remembered as the owner of the hunting lodge near Apalachin, New York,which was the site of the 1957 "gangland convention"); Barbera succeeded Santo Volpe.

The "Pittston family" reportedly had mixed loyalties, operating at various times in partnership with Philadelphia, Buffalo, and the five New York families, and a connection between Bufalino and Philadelphia hired-killer Frank Sheerin is often mentioned when the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa comes up. Organized crime is also often cited in conjunction with what's left of the anthracite industry.

But in sixty years of living nearby, I can recall only a handful of what appeared to be organized crime-relate incidents of violence, most of them in the Hazleton area about twenty miles to the south.

My home community of Berwick has an Italian-American enclave of about 3 x 8 blocks on the west side of a large foundry complex which dominated local industry for many years. It was common knowledge (so much so that the local newspaper once did a feature on the man) that there was "someone to see" if you were of certain extraction and "needed a favor". But the activity was very low-key; for example, during the mid-1970's,several small businesses in that neighborhood had plastic adapters which, when slipped over a gas-pump nozzle, allowed the cheaper "regular" gasoline to be dispensed into the tanks of newer vehicles requiring unleaded gas.

That was about as "noticeable" as the evidence got.

[Dd714]

Originally Posted by Lowkeykennyg

Hey there,

This might be the wrong place for this, but I'm really just curious about what cities in America still have an organized crime influence(Beyond street gangs). I thought it would be cool for people who may know more about a certain area to explain what the situation is like there. Personally, I currently like in Columbus, Ohio, and we don't have much history of organized crime. That being said, Cleveland and Youngstown have always been ripe with crime.
Tell us about your city!

The face of organized crime isn't what is pictured in "Soprano's" reruns. The old Mafia of legend is dead except in certain big cities, and then concentrated into certain niche underworld businesses - unions, gambling, etc.

Street gangs in many instances ARE organized criminal organizations. Over 20 years or so they have gotten smarter, organized, moving into drug and weapons distribution and protection, money laundering, they recruit, and have national and sometime international coverage. Other ethnic gangs also - Russians, Mexicans, etc, have pretty much taken over the "organized crime" area from the traditional Cosa Nostra network.